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As It Happens

Mystery of the 'Kiss of Judas' finally solved

Hidden in plain sight. Historians say the medieval painting survived the English Reformation because someone flipped it over five hundred years ago and used the back to display religious text, which was more acceptable during the destructive period.
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Lucy Wrapson of the Hamilton Kerr Institute says the medieval "Kiss of Judas" painting survived the destructive English Reformation five hundred years ago because someone thought to turn it around and use the back to display religious text. ( Chris Titmus/Hamilton Kerr Institute, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge)
As It Happens6:13Mystery solved for how rare painting survived so long

During the English Reformation, very little religious artwork survived the tumultuous period. Much of it was destroyed. One of the few exceptions is the Kiss of Judas, which portrays Christ's betrayal at the hands of Judas. But how the painting survived has remained a mystery ... until now.

"It's an astonishing story," conservator Lucy Wrapson explains to As It Happens host Carol Off. "When we removed a 20th-century backboard from the back of the painting, I looked and realized that there was a load of whitewash and some areas of text [on the back of it]."

Her discovery suggested that someone - likely a parishioner - had turned the painting around in an effort to hide it. They wrote religious text - likely the Ten Commandments or bible verse - on the back and then rehung it. 

Wrapson works with the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which is located at Cambridge University.

The Kiss of Judas dates back to about 1460. Wrapson says she also found evidence that it was likely part of a larger series of paintings depicting the Passion of the Christ. Little else is known about it, including who created it. But she did find a coat of arms. 

"We can identify what part of the country the painting came from, probably Leicestershire, because that coat of arms belongs to a family named Belgrave. So that's probably who commissioned the painting. Although we don't know who painted it, we may know who paid for it."

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